What got you interested in flintlocks?

[wojciste]

Being from PA the only muzzleloader I ever owned/shot.

 

[Vikingman1981]

PA Flintlock season intrigued me so I purchased a .54 Lyman Deerstalker back in 2018. I didn't have a mentor or anyone to show me the ropes but I learned a lot the last few years. Switching from Pryodex to actual BP was a huge improvement haha although I learned to shoot accurately with the hang fire pryodex ensures. Lots of research and simply shooting. I have shot 5 deer with it now and I am hooked. I really want to get a .54 Hawken flinter next.

 

[stikshooter]

What got you interested in flintlocks? How many people have you introduced to the hobby? Seems we all recruit friends family and they get hooked!!!!

SIMPLE (KIBLER) /Ed

 

[Rangefogger]

Without a doubt the Fess Parker Davy Crockett series. Always loved American history as well.

 

[dynabase]

The government. With a flint gun I can make my own bullets and powder and keep shooting without government interferance. I don't care if I shoot another metalic cartridge gun again. I replaced my "evil AR15 spray ther entire world blow you lung out of your body" gun with something that requires thought and patience before you pull the trigger. You only have one shot so you should think about the balistics and use the sights to make it a productive shot. I was a Marine and we use to always laugh at the Army spray and pray method of marksmanship. I like the purpose driven life of a black powder shooter. I think it's the solitude of not having to listen to the government and WOKE nonsence as I punch holes in my recycled paper targets.

 

[Campbell]

The government. With a flint gun I can make my own bullets and powder and keep shooting without government interferance. I don't care if I shoot another metalic cartridge gun again. I replaced my "evil AR15 spray ther entire world blow you lung out of your body" gun with something that requires thought and patience before you pull the trigger. You only have one shot so you should think about the balistics and use the sights to make it a productive shot. I was a Marine and we use to always laugh at the Army spray and pray method of marksmanship. I like the purpose driven life of a black powder shooter. I think it's the solitude of not having to listen to the government and WOKE nonsence as I punch holes in my recycled paper targets.

Until the politicians and the woke come after your flintlock.

 

[oldramrod]

I started with percusions but added flintlocks because, well just because!

 

[Panama Red]

The government. With a flint gun I can make my own bullets and powder and keep shooting without government interferance. I don't care if I shoot another metalic cartridge gun again. I replaced my "evil AR15 spray ther entire world blow you lung out of your body" gun with something that requires thought and patience before you pull the trigger. You only have one shot so you should think about the balistics and use the sights to make it a productive shot. I was a Marine and we use to always laugh at the Army spray and pray method of marksmanship. I like the purpose driven life of a black powder shooter. I think it's the solitude of not having to listen to the government and WOKE nonsence as I punch holes in my recycled paper targets.

I often caught my AR sneaking back in the house late at night. I never knew what it was up to. I was terrified that it was out there, blowing lungs right out of people. One morning I woke up, and it was gone, never to return. I’ll expect better behavior from my flintlock!

 

[Mcat]

For a year when I was 10 years old in 1957, there was a tv show called Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans. There were a total of 39 1/2 hour episodes one a week at about 5:30 after school. The thing about them was they were filmed in southern Ontario not far from where I roamed outside in the woods behind my house. A lot of outdoor shots with frontier action and flintlocks blazing right from the opening credits. Got me shooting hunting arrows at the back door of our barn over the woodpile and wishing for a real flintlock. At 10 I got a plastic one for Christmas.
When I retired at 66 I got my first real one and was on my way. Got more than enough to keep me happy now.

 

[64Springer]

Speaking of flintlocks.

Muzzle-Loaders.com now has .45 and .50 Kentuckyish flintlock kits in stock.

Just received an e-mail.

 

[Flanders]

Have always been interested in our early colonial history and guns, so that kind of evolved into my intrest in flintlocks. I started hanging out at a small gunshop in Snyder county Pa that was owned by a man named Bill Roush he is now gone, but he guided me into this hobby and he was a great friend and mentor. Over time I’ve gotten a few friends a bit interested in our hobby. It’s been a great adventure that I hope I have a good number of years ahead of me yet.

 

[M. De Land]

What got you interested in flintlocks? How many people have you introduced to the hobby? Seems we all recruit friends family and they get hooke

I've always loved anything that shot projectiles even bow and arrows. rock slings and sling shots and especially guns. I was introduced to flint guns in my early teens by a cousin that I spent a lot of time with. I've always had a muzzle loader of some sort since.
As I got older I seem to have digressed to my earlier years of flint guns and bow and arrows having since learned to knapp arrow points and make gun flints. Now that caps are hard to get flint guns really seem to make more sense.
I also regained a boy hood penchant for making wood self bows since learning how to properly tiller the limbs which was a real impediment to my early attempts at good bow making.
Now I have both flint and percussion guns a plenty as they seem to keep having kids !

 

[tenngun]

Puff of smoke under my nose.
My first ml was a Mowrey Allen and Thurber box lock. I didn’t know there were clubs.
When I went to my first and shot with the bunch I had so much fun.
Second or third trip a boy in revolutionary garb had a bess and let me shoot it.
I had a money jar to save in and started a fund to buy a flitter right then I was about eighteen. Took me almost a year, never looked back

 

[Grenadier1758]

Oh, I believed when I started shooting traditional muzzle loading rifles, the misinformation that flint lock ignition was very unreliable. I shot percussion rifles for more than a few years. I finally decided to try out a flint lock. That took me a while to start getting reliable ignition. Mostly getting the lock tuned through firing. The more I shot, the more reliable the lock became. Now, I find that I mostly shoot flint lock rifles. It's such a thrill to be at our range when a new to the flint lock experience shoots a well-tuned flint lock. The amazed look and wide smile leads to many converts from other forms of shooting to traditional muzzleloading.

 

[beyu]

As a kid, watching movies like Northwest Passage, Drums Along The Mohawk and Disney's Davy Crockett. A few times of seeing the flash of powder in the pan and I was fascinated by these guns, and captivated by the history.

Now as an old guy, I appreciate the effort it took to learn how to make a flintlock work; spark reliably, how best to position the flint in the jaws of the cock; bevel up or down; wrapped in leather of lead. Then there's the art of pulling a round ball jammed in the bore. Not to mention — the FUN!

 

[Muley Gil]

Like several others have mentioned, watching first Fess Parker as Davy Crockett and then Fess as Daniel Boone.

 

[SwanShot]

I undertook to establish black powder at our club which shoots a wide variety of firearms. I shot ML rifles myself but had never shot a BP pistol in my life. So, here I was running black powder pistol shoots and I didn't have a clue. I had to get myself a pistol. In a momentary brain fart I decided I would go the whole hog and get myself a flintlock pistol. Well----Talk about a whole new ball game. I already shot a 54 renegade so I figured I already had most of what I needed for the calibre and I got myself a .54 Pedersoli Kentucky rock lock. I learned a lot tuning this gun to shoot reliably but I gotta tell you that doing it again I would have bought the .45. Shooting one handed with 35grns of 3 f behind a 54 cal ball is not easy.
That having been said, I love it. Any swinging dick can shoot a cap gun. I'm the only one on our line that shoots a flinter.

 

[Undertow]

I've always been interested in history and living in Michigan there is plenty around. I've posted this on here before but I grew up watching the old Davy Crockett movie on Disney channel. My first "muzzleloader" was a toy one bought at gift shop at Fort Michilimackinac. I remember begging my mom to buy it for me and I also got one single roundball that I carried around for probably a year in a buckskin pouch. I use to stalk around the neighborhood with my toy muzzleloader while wearing my coonskin cap pretending I was a trapper. Anyways, I'd grow up, get really into bowhunting, and then fly fishing took over my life for about 20 years to the point I rarely even hunted anymore. Then a few years ago I kinda got burnt out on fly fishing and started to get back into hunting. Early this spring as I was eyeing turning 40 I started looking at flintlocks thinking that 9 yr old Undertow would think it was really cool that 40 yr old Undertow was hunting with a flintlock. Month or so later I ordered a Kibler and will finish it this weekend. If time allows between family obligations and turkey opener I may even get a chance to shoot it this weekend which will be my first time I've ever shooting a flintlock or any traditional muzzleloader. So far I haven't been able to convert anyone to flintlocks, most of my hunting and shooting friends think it's cool and would like to shoot it, but at least for now the majority of them are into AR's.

 

[Centurion]

“Last of the Mohicans”. First Daniel Day Lewis, then Gary Cooper. Bought an old maple DGW chasing Killdeer and foolishly sold it. Then one day a couple of years ago i found another here, this time in cherry, and this one i’ll have buried with me. Well, propped up in the casket for display anyway. I’ll leave instructions to have it removed before they slam the lid. IMVHO, it’s the most beautiful production gun this side of 1800.

don

 

[Marshhawk]

Same here with the Fess Parker/Daniel Boone/Davy Crocket childhood, complete with the toy caplock rifle that fired those red cap gun caps that came on a roll and propelled (theoretically) a small, cork rifle ball. It was the best! I'm fond of books from the days of sail and black powder, but also many magazines, including Outdoor Life, Sports Afield, Guns & Ammo, Game & Fish, Mother Jones, Shooting Times and The Atlantic. Also, newspapers.